Dietrich Lubs, the legendary designer behind the Bauhaus-inspired designs of Braun, has taken a break from retirement to help update a limited number of Braun watches.
Mr Lubs was a student and then partner with Dieter Rams, and the pair worked together on some of Braun’s most influential products.
He was hired by Mr Rams in 1962, joining a design team that applied German industrial design to products ranging from wristwatches to calculators.
Mr Lubs left Braun in 2001, but has made a brief return to help the team create contemporary editions of some of his iconic watches including a dark blue BN0031, which takes inspiration from the original AW10.
The watch, which is manufactured by British watch company Zeon, was produced exclusively for Dezeen, a leading art, design and architecture magazine.
It is on sale at Braun’s ecommerce site for £150.
Bauhaus design is having a massive impact on today’s watch market, but Mr Lubs thinks the philosophy has been applied without making any creative advances.
“When you looked around at the stands at Baselworld this year, 90 per cent of the products had no character. Very few manufacturers make good watches now,” he tells Dezeen reporter Alyn Griffiths.
In contrast, Mr Lubs believes that Braun’s designs have stood the test of time 45 years after they were created.
“They are minimalist and they have real character,” he said. “You can see they were made in the 70s and they still have the spirit of that time,” he says.
Mr Lubs also has an eye on the future, and tells Dezeen that he still dreams of creating a next generation watch.
“I think it would be wonderful if I could design a smartwatch,” he suggests. “It would look like the DW30 I designed for Braun. It would have a display that clearly shows that it is a digital product,” he adds.
